Once there was an elephant,
Who tried to use the telephant-
No! No! I mean an elephone
Who tried to use the telephone-
(Dear me! I am not certain quite
That even now I've got it right.)
Howe'er it was, he got his trunk
Entangled in the telephunk;
The more he tried to get it free,
The louder buzzed the telephee-
(I fear I'd better drop this song
Of elephop and telephong!)
When I was 13 I experienced one of the most memorable days of my life - May 20, 1979. In addition to being my first ever visit to a Swap Meet ("fleamarket" for you East Coasters), and my first time on the now-historic Montezooma's Revenge at Knott's Berry Farm (still one of my all-time favorite rides), it was the day I bought my first telephone at that first Swap Meet.-Laura E. Richards, Eletelephony
Granted, it was nothing to brag about (a beat up black 1940's-era desktop phone I bought for the grand sum of 75 cents), it worked, and it opened the proverbial "door" for a vast exploration of the local phone exchanges. Not having many friends to call, I found it more interesting to interact with the machinery itself.
My first "project" after getting the phone was running a phone line from the house into a large hedge on the property, to a "secret" alcove. I spent countless hours out there, dialing every possible number combination to see what would happen.
Although I didn't know anybody from the phone company and never got
to see the exchange machinery in person (oh! how much I would have loved
that!!), I knew every click, beep, ring tone and "number out of service"
message in the Colton, Highland, Calimesa and Redlands exchanges, as well
as some in other areas. When we went on road trips I was ecstatic when
I could hear the distinct sounds of a different exchange.
One of the things I miss about the "good old days" 15-20+ years ago is the variety that was present in the standard tones one heard when placing a call. With the advancement of all-electronic exchanges (EAXs or ESSs) a pall of sameness has overcome the telephone industry.
Nowadays when you use your phone, no matter where you are calling, you will most likely hear this dial tone and this ring signal. All standardized... and monotonous as Chinese water torture.
When the old electro-mechanical systems were in use, one could often tell by the ring tone what exchange he was calling. For example: If you were calling a GTE exchange, the tone would have sounded like this (714-795, Calimesa), or this (714-925, Hemet). Bell exchanges' tones often sounded like this (714-825, Colton). One of my favorites was the Continental Telephone exchange in Blythe, California (714-922). Here is a more rustic tone from June Lake, CA (714-648).
Some other interesting tidbits I was conscientious enough to record: the "tick sound" which always used to be heard on our exchange (714-795) when one was dialing a long-distance call. To this day I am curious as to what its function was.
Another interesting thing I stumbled across: My best guess was that it was some type of test set for checking the accuracy of a DTMF keypad. It was usually reached by dialing a Pac Bell prefix and "1111". You would hear this tone. If you then dialed a 2 or 5, you would hear this. If you dialed a 1, 3 or 6 you would hear this. The most interesting one, if you dialed a 9 or #, was this, complete with "fake explosion" sound. Dialing 8 or 0 would disconnect you from the test set, and dialing 4, 7 or * yielded no sound.
An interesting sidebar to the "explosion sound": One afternoon, when I was playing with this test set, a moderate earthquake rattled Yucaipa. For a few days afterwards I thought it was my playing with the tones that caused the quake, and was wondering when the authorities would be coming for me! Oh, the naïveté of a 13-year old with an avid imagination...
Another interesting test number I came across was on the Pacific Bell exchanges, when one dialed a number with "1117" as the suffix. Two ringing signals would be heard, then a rhythmic clicking sound accompanied by changes in polarity on the phone line. (The exact sequence was: Click/click-click/click-click/click (pause) click/click-click/click-click (then the polarity changes would cease but you could still hear a faint rhythmic clicking in the background.) )[The / indicates a brief pause].
I also liked to listen to some of the "out of service" messages. This was before the era of that irritating "warning tone". I used to imagine the type of person who was making them. This one always reminded me of a granny. This one had a soothing voice and instilled a feeling of warmth in me. No need to explain this one. (Phone 'em, cowboy!)
If anyone knows specifics about some of the things I describe here,
CARES about anything here, or has anything to add I would like to hear
from you! (Please remove NO-SPAM before sending)